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Hermits
Long before monasteries existed individuals chose a life of solitude
where God could be worshipped in a place of quietness far away from a
world full of cruelty, anarchy and selfishness. These people were known
as hermits and they lived far away from society in caves with no
comforts at all. Hermits have existed in all faiths of religion
including Pagan, Jew, Buddhist, Moslem and Christianity. Some hermits
were joined by small groups of followers who listened to their preaching.
It could have been these bands of people who first developed the idea
of a monastery.
Little is known of these groups of people in the centuries before and
during the Dark Ages but they did produce from their numbers many
people who were to become saints. St. Colomba, St. Chad, St. Patrick
and St. Cuthbert are to name a few. St. Columba arrived in Scotland
from Ireland and brought Christianity with him. He founded a monastery
at Iona.
Saint Benedict
Saint Benedict founded several monasteries in Italy in the early sixth
century (A.D. 500 – A.D. 550) including the monastery at Monte Cassino
near Naples. Benedict devised a series of rules which had to be followed
by his monks and his followers became known as the Benedictine Order.
The rules were easy to follow and were adopted in many other countries
as well. The monks had to obey three vows; poverty, chastity and
obedience. This protected them from the deceits of the World, the lust
of the flesh and the snares of the devil. Their day was divided into
three parts. The first was devoted to services in the church; the second
was devoted to work in the cloisters, reading, writing and meditation;
and the third was devoted to manual labour, to help in the gardens or
the infirmary.
Saint Augustine
Saint Augustine introduced Christianity into southern England in 597.
He brought with him the Benedictine Order. Augustine converted the
Pagan king Ethelbert to Christianity. Ethelbert gave Augustine an
ancient building in Canterbury which had been a church belonging to
earlier British Christians built by King Lucius. Augustine restored
and rebuilt sections of the church and it became the centre of
Christianity in Britain.
Destruction by the Danes
The Vikings invaded Britain raiding the churches for the riches and
killing the monks. By the end of the Alfred the Great’s reign in 899
monastic life in Britain had almost completely died out.
Archbishop Dunstan
During the reign of King Edgar (944-975) Archbishop Dunstan, a
Benedictine monk himself, restarted the population of the monasteries.
Situated mainly in the south of England these new monasteries included
Glastonbury, Ely, Christ Church and Bury St. Edmunds. The new
monasteries followed the Rule of St. Benedict.
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